


The Traveler

by Katbelle



Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Abandonment, Alien Planet, Alien Technology, Aliens, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-27
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-14 00:12:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1245508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katbelle/pseuds/Katbelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Young shouldn't have left him on the planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Traveler

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Yoyi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoyi/gifts).
  * Translation into Español available: [El viajero](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1248523) by [Yoyi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoyi/pseuds/Yoyi)
  * A translation of [Wędrowiec](https://archiveofourown.org/works/749737) by [Katbelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katbelle/pseuds/Katbelle). 



> This is a translation of a story I wrote in 2010, I believe.

**The Traveler**

 

Rush wakes up on a planet.

His head still hurts from the last blow, for a moment he thinks that his nose might be broken. He rolls to the side and covers his head with an arm. The trouble breathing turns out to be caused by clotted blood, just that, nothing that Lt. Johansen couldn’t handle.

Rush shivers. It’s awfully cold.

He manages to turn onto his stomach, that’s progress, and, with considerable difficulty, hauls himself into a kneeling position. _Son of a_ —It takes a moment for his mind — clouded by pain as it is — to register the fact that it’s dark, not only dark but also cold, and isn’t that curious, because there were only twenty minutes left before _Destiny_ jumped, because it was the middle of a scorching-hot day, because—

Oh.

He left him. That son of a bitch left him, alone, on this wasteland. Rush wants to laugh, because isn’t this poetic? Perhaps he was wrong about Young (he wasn’t wrong), but even if he was wrong just a little, Young was wrong _a lot_ , and he _shouldn’t have left him_.

He raises his head. The sky is clear and the stars are visible, and no, no no no, that is not a good sign. It means the atmosphere is thin, it means high temperature amplitudes and bad quality of air. That’s why it’s so cold. Perhaps that’s why his head is pounding, too.  
He gets up and turns his head upwards. Somewhere, somewhere up there, there’s his ship, his life’s work. He wonders what Young told them, the crew. That there was a rockslide? That Rush fell? That would be Young’s style, so unimaginative, so—

They’re going to believe him anyway.

He glances towards the crashed alien ship. That’s his only hope now, isn’t it? The only means of survival, because Young left him and didn’t have the decency to kill him first.

He has to find a way to open that hatch.

***

(“So, uh, we just stayed too long. On the way back, Rush tripped himself up, started a rock slide. I was ahead, but I just, I barely made it through.”

They believe him. T.J., Scott, that’s obvious. He was worried abort Camile, but it seems she bought his story, at least for now. Eli—Eli glares at him suspiciously, but stays silent. 

For now it’s enough.)

***

Rush wakes up on a metal floor.

Opening the hatch took him a better part of the day (hot day, he was right), but it drove away thoughts of thirst and hunger, and tiredness, and coldness. He sits up on his heels, stands up.

The ship’s console is operational, at least partially, probably powered by some emergency reserves. Rush doesn’t have a computer with him, doesn’t even have his notepad — the language that was used to programme this ship is different from Ancient, has virtually no common etymology. Rush doesn’t know it and doesn’t understand, he has nothing to compare it against. He’s not an idiot, he would be able to crack it and come up with a solution, he did manage with the ninth chevron, after all. But there’s no time to do that, dehydration will kill him much sooner.

This ship is his only escape route. Rush walks over to the console and begins studying it, applying the oldest method of learning, the one preferred by the science team, the one he despises so much.

The trial and error one.

***

(“We could say a prayer for him,” says Lisa Park, glancing away from her console.

Brody and Volker exchange surprised looks. Eli hunches onto himself and lowers his head. Even further, as if he doesn’t want to draw attention to himself.

“Rush wasn’t religious,” Volker points out eventually.

“But he’s dead,” Park replies, unbothered. “We could honour him that way.”

Eli murmurs something unintelligible and leaves the room.

“I doubt he’d appreciate that,” says Brody, and that ends the conversation.)

***

Rush wakes up on a ship.

It’s a different ship than the one on which he finally passed out (due to exhaustion and dehydration, or perhaps the other way round, right after — in a fit of despair — he turned on everything that could have been turned on). ‘On a ship’ seems like a stretch, though, because ‘in a water tank’ is much more accurate.

So, Rush wakes up in a water tank. He panics instantly, starts struggling, and at this precise moment he’d give everything to see a face of someone familiar. It could even be Young, because Rush is not ungrateful and can appreciate small mercies if they ever find him.  
The creatures on the other side of fogged-up glass seem to enjoy this show. They regard him — perhaps with interest, he’s not sure — cock their heads to the side and finally decide that they’ve seen enough. One of them presses a button on a nearby console. The water turns light pink.

He falls asleep.

***

(Eli glares at him angrily.

“You should've thought of that before you got rid of Rush.”

Young is taken aback, for a brief second.

“Just fix it.”)

***

Rush wakes up in water, again.

One of the creatures smashes the tank’s glass and allows him to fall out of it. Instinct (and terror) takes precedent and Rush shies away, quickly, so far that he has nowhere to run even if he wanted to. The creature raises its hands in a very humane gesture, and that’s something new, that’s an anomaly, that shouldn’t have happened.

Right now something new can only mean something good.

“You want to help me?”

The creature doesn’t attack, doesn’t speak, doesn’t do anything other than staring intently at Rush and giving a single glance towards a console. Against all logic and reason, Rush decides to trust it.

And doesn’t that end funnily.

Young. Of all the people who could have accidentally got here, who could have turned out to be Rush’s saviour, it had to be Young.

Interesting, though, that Young decided to save him in the first place. From the colonel’s perspective, leaving Rush and focusing on finding Chloe, would be in his own best interest. But no. Despite everything, Young is too noble for that.

How Rush hates him.

But this second he has goals that are similar to Young’s, just this once, and why did it have to happen _now_. Ah, but yes. Priorities. Find Chloe. Get back to _Destiny_. 

It’s safe there.

***

(“Colonel Young said you were dead.”

His head is pounding, again. Greer is pointing a gun at him, again. Isn’t it wonderful, to be back among his own people.

“Oh, did he? Did he say how it happened?”

Greer doesn’t lower his gun.

“Rockslide.”

Rush nods. It’s enough for now.

“Well, obviously, he was wrong again.”)

***

Rush wakes up on _Destiny_.

Alone. Sweating. With a trembling hand he touches a thin scar on his chest that he didn’t hale before.

It’s still not safe.


End file.
